Blood For My Blood
by IWalkBlindlyIntoTheShadows
Summary: When it's only you and your brother, you'd do anything for him. Red, exiled for the murder of two cats, knows exactly how it feels. He regretted not standing up for his brother, Russetnose, when he was being bushed around by two of his fellow DuskClan cats. So, to make it up to him, Redpelt took matters into his own paws.


_**I just wanted to post something to prove I'm not dead. I just haven't had much motivation to work on my stories, so I decided to take a break. I'm sure this won't be a long hiatus, but it won't be really short either.**_

_**Other than to give that update, I'm also here with a one-shot. This one deals with two of my own characters from my roleplay forum We Are The Night. It's not that large, but I'm proud of it and all of my forummates.**_

_**Here we go with Blood For My Blood.**_

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_"There's no other love like the love for a brother. There's no other love like the love from a brother." - Astrid Alauda_

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Redpelt got to his paws groggily, the warmth of the greenleaf morning only making the tom want to curl back up in his nest. Letting out a yawn, he stepped outside to see that Russetnose, his littermate, was already wide awake and sunning himself. The dark ginger tabby padded over and joined his brother.

"I don't understand how you can handle getting up so early." He yawned as he laid in the rising sun next to the flame-coloured tom. Russetnose rolled his eyes, but gave a small, playful shove.

"I don't understand how you can be so lazy."

"Hey, I'm not _that _lazy." Redpelt defended.

"_Sure_ you're not," Russetnose joked, shaking his head ever so slightly. "And I'm a mouse."

"You fight like one."

"Oh really?" Russetnose challenged glancing over at Redpelt, who purred in response.

_At least he stopped hating me for becoming a patroller. He's becoming a great camp guard anyway._

"Really." Russetnose shoved Redpelt so suddenly that the dark ginger tabby toppled over on his side. The dark ginger camp guard looked proud his himself, his pale muzzle held highly in the air as he looked at his brother.

"Can a mouse do that?"

"Alright, fly-brain, no need to be like that," Redpelt purred, getting back to his paws. "Have the queens eaten yet? The elderly?"

Russetnose shrugged. "I'm sure the queens did, but don't take my word on it. If you see any apprentices taking prey to the elderly, than we have our answer."

"I guess so." The dark ginger patroller responded, glancing around camp. for what it was worth, it felt pretty peaceful. After a short bit, the border patrol returned, the patrollers and patrol guard looking quite relaxed, and the small hunting patrol returned, each hunter and patrol guard carrying one piece of scrawny prey each. The leafless hunting was proving to be much more difficult, even with the late snow.

_Freshleaf will be here soon... _He tried to think positively, but at the same time, it was hard to believe it ever would. Deciding to check on his apprentice, Smokepaw, Redpelt padded away from his brother after saying his goodbyes. As he did, something caught his eye. One of Russetnose's fellow camp guards, a mostly white she-cat with ivy green eyes, was watched Russet with a distant look in her eyes. Redpelt found this amusing.

_Is Ivysnow even aware of how she's looking at him? _Looking back at Russetnose, it was obvious his flame-coloured littermate was unaware of the look he was getting from her. Deciding not to linger much longer, he continued moving. Outside the apprentices den sat Smokepaw, the dark gray tom seemingly enjoying a chat with the pretty little blue-gray she-cat, Mistypaw. Smokepaw noticed his mentor and glanced over at him.

"Hi, Redpelt." The apprentice greeted, looking a lot less chaty than he was a few moments ago. The dark ginger tom still had no clue why his apprentice wouldn't open up to him, but wasn't about to push it while he was still in a good mood.

"I just wanted to check up on you. Were the queens fed?"

"By Grasspaw." The dark gray tabby responded simply.

"And the elderly?" When Smokepaw didn't respond, Redpelt glanced over at the sad excuse for a fresh-kill pile. "How about you go feed them and check if they need fresh moss?"

While Smokepaw didn't seem like he even wanted to homour the thought, the dark gray tabby went anyway, sending Mistypaw a quick glance goodbye. With that done, Redpelt went to return to his littermate to find Russetnose wasn't where he had been before. Looking around, he spotted Mudpelt and his mate, Rainheart, nearby. They seemed to be blocking something out of Redpelt's view. A glimpse at Russetnose's ginger tail was enough to make the dark ginger tabby feel concerned. Carefully approaching, he heard what Mudpelt was saying.

"What are you going to do about it, _camp guard_? It's not like you do anything spectacular." The dark brown tom shoved Russetnose harshly. Redpelt bristled, but part of him didn't want to move.

"I-" Russetnose was cut off by Mudpelt.

"What? Protect the camp? From what? There's no dangers that get past patrollers, like me," For a short moment Mudpelt puffed out his chest in pride before turning his attention back to Russetnose. "Just admit it, you're useless. You and every camp guard out there."

"We're _not_ useless!" Russetnose spat, his long fur bristling. However, this was met by a sharp blow from Mudpelt, whose paw struck Russetnose's ear, leaving the fluffy dark ginger tom stunned. Mudpelt, obviously proud of himself, padded away. Happily, Rainheart followed, the pale gray tabby praising her mate for 'putting the camp guard in his place'. As Russetnose glared after them, Redpelt's eyes met his brother's. The shock turned to anger. "You... You just stood there and watched?"

"Russetnose-"

"You _let_ that happen," Redpelt stepped forward, but Russetnose stepped away. "Stay away from me. You're just as bad as _they_ are."

_Foxdung!_ Redpelt felt regret set in for not stepping in to protect his own kin. As Russetnose stormed away, Redpelt tried to think of what he could do to make it up to him. Digging his claws into the ground, a thought crossed his mind. Padding up to the two, he noticed their daughter, Dustkit, was out playing with her older sister from a different litter, Breezefur. He approached them carefully.

"Evening, Mudpelt, Rainheart." Rainheart dipped her head politely.

"Evening, Redpelt."

"What brings you to us? You never seemed to be the kind to want to socialize with your Clanmates." Mudpelt observed.

"I decided it would be best to get to know my two fellow patrollers, even if one of them's currently a queen."

"Hmph." Mudpelt responded. Thankfully, Rainheart was a little nicer.

"That's good to hear." She purred.

"How about we go for a walk and talk? The camp is a bit cramped right now."

"You can say _that_ again. Those useless camp guards just take up the place." Biting back anything negative he had to say about Mudpelt's response, Redpelt invited them to go. With other queens to look after Dustkit, he knew it wouldn't be a problem. As the three went on a walk, Mudpelt was the one to break the silence.

"You know, you're not half bad, considering who your littermate is. Even if we haven't really talked before, you can at least hold your own in a fight. It's cats like you we need more of. Not soft camp guard who sit back and eat prey."

"Mudpelt's right, you know. As long as there are patrollers, no camp guards are needed." Rainheart mewed.

"What if there's a problem with a cat in the camp?" Redpelt asked. Mudpelt gave an amused snort.

"Not _all_ patrollers go on patrols, not all hunters leave to hunt, and not all patrol guards leave to guard the hunters and patrollers, you know," The dark brown tom replied, his tail swishing slightly. "Don't try telling me you're actually soft on those lumps of fur."

"I'm not. I was just wondering." Redpelt lied quickly. As they approached the thicker part of the forest, the part owned by no cat, the sound of barking wolves became clear in the distance. Without a hint of hesitation, Redpelt lunged at Mudpelt and sunk his teeth into the tom's throat.

"No!" Two voiced cried out at the same time. One was obviously Rainheart as she knocked Redpelt away from her head mate, but the other sounded too young and too she-catish to be Mudpelt. As he delivered the killing bite to Rainheart as well, he heard sobbing. Looking, he spotted Dustkit, who shouldn't have been out of camp. As he stood over the two bodies, the brown she-kit ran away. He found himself unable to move from the surprise, but forced himself to when he realized what it meant. Is plan to frame the wolves for their murder would fail if they kit returned back to camp. He raced after her, but the kit was already stumbling through the camp entrance when he caught up. Voices of his Clanmates filled the air.

"What's going on?"

"Is that _blood_?!"

"Why was Dustkit outside of the camp?"

"H-he killed t-them!" The kit cried, her tiny voice heard clearly through the murmurs. "H-he killed M-M-Mudpelt a-and Raineheart!"

"What?!" Petalstar's voice sounded above the others. Her amber eyes narrowed on Redpelt, and the blood tainting his muzzle was still there. Knowing what would happen to him, the thing that happened with all bloodclaws, he glanced through the crowd for Russetnose. Seeing his brother's golden eyes widened in shock in fear hurt, but he knew it was for the best. He had done it for the flame-coloured tom, after all. As his exile was about to start, Redpelt found he had no regrets.

_They can't hurt you ever again, Russetnose. I made sure of it._

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**_So there we go. Not my best work, but it's not my worst._**

**_We Are The Night is open, but there's only a slim chance you can go and make a cat (I apologize for that). But you can still enjoy conversing with everyone. It's alright if you don't want to join._**

**_I also have a new forum to help those stuck on writing Warriors stories. It's called Warriors Stories Support. _**

**_The link to both forums can be found on my profile._**

**_With that, I hope you all have a wonderful day._**


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